The fab five weren't exactly a division II team when they played Duke. I think the reference has more to do with the fact that the game is being played on a national stage and no one expects Michigan to win.

Interesting vibe coming out of Hoke, Borges and Mattison in their interviews. There's the to-be-expected coach-speak about "always room for improvement." But there's a certain ... dare I say it? ... calm, quiet confidence in how this team has formed.

No cocky boasting (that's not their way), but also very little obvious lowering of expectations.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into this ... but I sense the coaches know something we do not. Yet.

I agree with Don AZ's observation here, but with regards to what you pointed out, I think that the "lack of consistency" phrase rolls up into the coack-speak of "room for improvement" though. I would imagine that most coaches and coordinators would talk about "lack of consistency" at some point in camp or maybe even in the season wherever they saw it, but in this camp, they're not settling for some readily attainable level of competency (i.e., not lowering expectations - if that's what they were doing, I don't think we'd hear ideal state phrases like "hearing football" or "Michigan defense" as often as we do in pressers). It seems to me that, as much as they use these coach-speak terms, they do like what they have and the are pleased with what is happening, even though we see mere snippets of it.

I gotta say, the blue jersey / blue pants combo has the potential to look pretty sweet. Not something to mess with at home, but something to keep in our pocket for a future bowl game or for when we go down to Death Valley to play LSU some year in the future. I can dream.